Bob Bergs solo on Angles

Klaus Frieler

Introduction

The present study attempts to reconstruct the creative processes underlyinga specific jazz solo improvisationBob Bergs solo on Anglesusing allavailable data from the musical surface as provided in the Weimar Jazz Data-base. To this end, we also try to integrate classical and computational analysismethods to gain a more complete picture than might be possible with eithermethod alone. This includes general statistical descriptions, a look at tonaland intervallic choices as well as the metrical and rhythmical design. Centralto our analysis will be an attempt to re-tell the story of the solo with aspecial focus on playing ideas (midlevel units) and dramaturgic curves. Wealso take a closer look at the construction principles for lines, including aclassification of line types, and in conclusion investigate the usage of intervaland pitch patterns in order to arrive at a maximally complete picture of thecreative devices and processes involved.

The object under study is a solo by Bob Berg (19512002), who was aneminent postbop tenor sax player of Miles Davis fame. He was born inBrooklyn, New York, and of Italian-Jewish origin. Unfortunately, only verylittle information is available about his life and personality. What is known isthat he started playing saxophone at age 13 and studied at the Juilliard School,but never graduated. He became a professional musician already at the age of18 and immersed himself in the New York loft jazz scene. He also dippedbriefly into free jazz at the end of the 1960s. He was strongly influenced byJohn Coltrane and, in the 1970s, he initially shunned the then very popularfusion jazz, preferring more classical settings. From 1973 to 1976, he workedwith Horace Silver, and was part of Cedar Waltons band from 1977 to 1981.His first record as a leader was New Birth from 1978, which featured CedarWalton on keyboards and piano. In the 1980s, Bob Berg came to the attention

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of Miles Davis, who included him in his famous electric band from 1984to 1987, where he became known as an eminent fusion saxophonist. Afterhe left Daviss Band, Bob Berg diversified his interests and played postbop,fusion, and other styles in various settings and groups. In an interview from1996, he stated: I feel pretty comfortable moving between different areas ofmusic. Amongst others, he was a frequent collaborator with his band matefrom the Miles Davis band, guitarist Mike Stern, and with another Davisalumnus, Chick Corea, on whose Stretch label he also released several albums.After his untimely death in a tragic car accident in 2002, Berg left a musicallegacy of 12 records as a leader and 33 records as a sideman.

The piece Angles is a Bob Berg original from his 1993 record Enter theSpirit. The composition can be described as a typical postbop tune, witha chord progression that is halfway between tonality and modality, verymuch in the spirit of Wayne Shorters compositions from the 1960s. Thetheme melody is angular, which might have been an inspiration for the titleof the song. The form and chords of the theme are not maintained duringthe solos; instead, a simplified 48-bar scheme AAB of 16 bars each is used,with four chords lasting over four bars each (cf. Table 1). The tonality is notfully clear, but a tendency to A[ major can be stated, since the A sectionsstart with A[maj7 and end with E[7 and most of the chords more or less fitinto A[major. Deviations can be found in the D[7(]11) in the A and B sections,which belong to G[ major/minor, as well as in the altered G7]9 and D7alt

chords at the ends of the B sections, which do not fit into A[major and havea rather unusual falling fourth relationship. The D7alt leads back to the A[maj7

with a tritone step, and hence these two chords might be interpreted as asemitone downward shifted variant of a A[7E[7 connection, which wouldfit better tonally. Due to the unusual chord connections, the overall loosetonality and rather long chord lengths, the solo form is located somewherebetween tonal and modal conceptions.

The tempo is rather high with 270 bpm and the rhythmic feel oscillatesconstantly between latin in the A sections and swing in the B sections. Theaccompaniment is very dense. In particular, pianist David Kikoski playing isrhythmically very accentuated, relentlessly pushing the energy, while oftenfilling the phrase gaps in Bergs solo with rhythmical impulses. DrummerDennis Chambers employs a modern, complex and busy drum style, whilefrequently reacting to Berg as well as driving him forward.

The solo comprises 799 tones in 38 phrases and 144 bars over three choruses.Most of the tones (85.4 %) are very short on an absolute scale (i. e., absoluteduration class) which in this high tempo equals mostly the level of eighthnotes (cf. Table 2). The syncopicity, i. e., the percentage of syncopated tones, is

BOB BERGS SOLO ON ANGLES 3

Table 1: General characteristics of Bob Bergs solo on Angles.

Composer Bob BergRecord Enter the Spirit (1993)Personnel Bob Berg (ts), David Kiskoski (p),

James Genus (b), Dennis Chambers (dr)Tempo 270 bpmSignature 44Key Mostly A[ majorForm A(16) A(16) B(16)

4-bar chord changes throughoutChord Changes A: A[maj7 | Cm7 | D[7 | E[7 |

B: Fm7 | D[7]11 | G7]9 | D7alt |Rhythm feels (theme) A: Latin, B: SwingRhythm feels (solos) A: Latin, B: LatinLengths 799 tones

144 bars3 choruses8 phrases

Duration 127 sDensities 6.3 tones/sec

5.6 tones/bar21 tones/phrase

Metrical centroid 3+Start of phrases 42 % (beat 3)

13 % on 3+10 % on 110 % on 2+

Syncopicity 9.2 %Tessitura A[3A[5

(36 semitones / 3 octaves)

rather low (9.4 %) compared to the average value of about 30 % in the WeimarJazz Database. This seems to be mostly due to Bergs highly precise timing,since, due to the metrical annotation with the FlexQ algorithm syncopicityvalues in the Weimar Jazz Database are partly driven by laid-back playing andrhythmical freedom. The listening experience corroborates this conjecture,as Bergs solo shows a very tight rhythmical performance.

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A1 A1 A1 A1 A2 A2 A2 A2 B1 B1 B1 B1

A1 A1 A1 A1 A2 A2 A2 A2 B1 B1 B1 B1

A1 A1 A1 A1 A2 A2 A2 A2 B1 B1 B1 B1

3

2

1

97 101 105 109 113 117 121 125 129 133 137 141 145

49 53 57 61 65 69 73 77 81 85 89 93 97

1 5 9 13 17 21 25 29 33 37 41 45 49

4050607080

4050607080

4050607080

Bar number

MID

I Pitc

h

Figure 1: Piano roll representation of Bob Bergs solo. The single panels correspondto choruses. Phrases are colored alternatively; form parts are shaded with differentgray tones.

The metrical placing of tones is uniformly distributed over all eighth notepositions in the 44 bar (Figure 2, middle panel). Interestingly, Berg has a strongpreference for starting his phrases on and around the third beat of a bar(Figure 2, top panel; Table 1). As can be seen in Table 3, 22 of all 38 phrasesstart on beat 3, very often (ten times) also right after a chord change (seealso Figure 1 for a visual overview of the interplay of phrase lengths, formsections, and four bar units). Another interesting fact is that Berg nearlyalways continues his phrases over the changes of contrasting form sections,i. e., A2B1 and B1A1, but not on the transition A1A2. The change ofrhythm between the A and B sections under an ongoing phrase has a certainsurprise effect and also contributes to the flow of the solo. The phrase endingsare more diversely distributed but tend to fall on on-beats and also on themetrically strong first and third beats of a bar (Figure 2, lower panel).

With respect to accentuation in loudness, Berg shows a certain tendency toplay (mostly in his fast lines) four eighth groups with descending loudness,starting from the strong first and third beat (Figure 3).

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Table 2: Distribution of absolute and relative duration classes.

Duration Class Absolute (%) Relative (%)

very short 85.4 9.9short 12.0 78.3medium 1.9 9.4long 0.6 1.6very long 0.1 0.8

Table 3: Distribution of metrical and hypermetrical positions of phrase beginnings.

Bar phase Beat position Sum1 2 3 4

0 1 1 10 0 121 4 2 4 1 112 1 2 6 1 103 2 1 2 0 5

Sum 8 6 22 2 38

Note. Bar phase= distance in bars from a chord change / four-bar block. Beat position= beat in the bar disregarding tatumposition.

Tonal and interval choices

The overall pitch range is three octaves from A[2 to A[5, with a strong focuson the middle octave; 83 % of all tones are between A[3 and E[5 (Figure 4, top).Tonally, the pitch classes fit very well into A[major, even though G is themost common pitch class (accordingly, G4 is the most common tone), but thisis due to some repeating patterns (oscillations) in the third chorus, where G4is the central tone. Looking at the pitch class distribution (Figure 4, bottom)the A[ major seems to be rather dominant, with about 84 % of all tonescoming from A[major. However, the solo makes a much more chromaticimpression during listening. This can be explained by looking at the chordaldiatonic pitch class distribution (Figure 5) and the chord-wise distribution ofnon-diatonic tones (Figure 6). There is a clear contrast between very inside,sometimes pentatonic playing on the one hand, and highly chromatic andeven outside playing on the other hand. The latter mostly takes place in thesecond half of the B sections over the altered dominant seventh chords G7]9

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Phrase end

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Phrase begin

1 1+ 2 2+ 3 3+ 4 4+

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Metrical Position